Sheena Headley and Rashida Rowe are the winners of the We Gatherin’ Tagline competition.
The winning slogan, Parish to Parish, Sea to Sea, We Gatherin’ fuh we, will be used by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade to promote its diaspora registration drive, the National We Gatherin’ 2020 competition.
Research Officer, Sheena Headley, and Research Assistant, Rashida Rowe, who are both employed in the Research Unit in the Ministry of Public Service, received their $1 000 prize, sponsored by the Republic Bank, during a brief presentation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Culloden Road, St Michael, recently.
The competition was open to only civil servants, and the prize is to be used within their unit. There were approximately 20 entrants.
According to Rowe, they entered the competition because they liked the idea of encouraging Barbadians living abroad to come home.
“We wanted something that would capture persons overseas and persons on the island. So that is how we came up with Parish To Parish to capture the home drums because those beat first, and then Sea To Sea to capture the others who would have left these shores,” Headley said.
Elated about their win, they shared that they were still celebrating, so they were uncertain how they would use the winning funds within their organisation.
Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Trade, Sandra Husbands, congratulated and thanked the two officers for creating a slogan that aptly represents the purpose of the We Gatherin’ 2020 competition.
Minister Husbands explained that the Ministry was responsible for making contact with the island’s diaspora and for recording their skills and resources. She shared that the competition was launched to motivate various generations of Barbadians to register with the Ministry.
“Unfortunately, in the normal running of things, most Barbadians do not contact the High Commission [or missions] unless they have a problem. So because of that we only have 10 000 people who are registered as Barbadians because from time to time they may have needed the services of the High Commission. But, we know that we have hundreds of thousands more persons of Barbadian descent. We are now into second, third and fourth generation Barbadians and some of them never had the opportunity to bond and connect with us in the way the first generation would have …. We want to reconnect with them,” she said.
Also congratulating the officers was Marketing and Communication Officer of Republic Bank, Sharon Howell. She said: “Your tagline is exciting; it is catchy …. It was a no brainer for Republic Bank. We are always interested in getting involved in community initiatives such as this, and we are excited to come on board and provide this prize to the deserving young ladies. So, it’s Parish to Parish, Sea to Sea, We Gatherin’ fuh we’!”
To find out more about the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ diaspora registration drive, visit https://wegatherin.foreign.gov.bb/ (BGIS)
